Reading in Professional Contexts

How Do Fish Breathe?

All animals breathe just like humans. How they breathe, however, varies. Breathe
by inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide as waste. Air flows in through the
human’s nose or mouth into the lungs where oxygen is transported through the blood to
the rest of the human body. Humans need air to breathe. So, what does that mean for
animals that live in the water?
Like humans, fish also need oxygen and emit carbon dioxide to survive. But using
the lungs, these creatures that live in water use organs called gills. The gills are organs
located on the sides of the fish’s head. These gills have many small blood vessels called
capillaries.When the fish opens, the water will flow over the gills. After that, the blood in
the capillaries will pick up oxygen that is soluble in water. The blood then moves through
the fish’s body to provide oxygen throughout the body, just like in humans.
All bony fish also have a bony plate called an operculum. This operculum is useful
for opening and closing to protect the gills. Breathing underwater is difficult. The air we
breathe has an oxygen concentration of 200,000 parts per million.Whereas water only
has a concentration of 4 to 8 parts per million. This means fish need to flow a lot of water
over their gills to get the amount of oxygen to survive. In addition, the gills are very useful
for extracting the oxygen needed by fish.
Breathing becomes more difficult as the oxygen concentration decreases. Low
levels of oxygen concentration make it impossible for animals to survive. Although it can
occur naturally, it can also be created by human activity.When pollution is high, such as
waste dumped into the sea, this will cause algae blooms which then die and decompose.
Furthermore, it will cause the zone to have a low oxygen concentration level of oxygen.
Fish need clean water to breathe. Similarly, humans need clean air to breathe.
Humans can help these gilled creatures to thrive by keeping their habitat free of pollutants.
Based on the text above, please give your critical arguments in the following tables!

What do you get from the text?

What facts do you find in reality

that are similar or different in
reality?

Write your own text that is similar

to the idea of the text above!

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